Marni Nixon, Singing Voice Behind WEST SIDE STORY, THE KING AND I & More, Dies at 86 Marni Nixon, Singing Voice Behind WEST SIDE STORY, THE KING AND I & More, Dies at 86 Tweet Share The New York Times reports that Marni Nixon, perhaps best known for dubbing the singing voices of the leading actresses in films, including THE KING AND I, WEST SIDE STORY and MY FAIR LADY, passed away from breast cancer on July 24th. She was 86. Ms. Nixon explained her Hollywood singing arrangements to ABC News in 2007 sharing, "You always had to sign a contract that nothing would be revealed. Twentieth Century Fox, when I did 'The King and I,' threatened me. They said, if anybody ever knows that you did any part of the dubbing for Deborah Kerr, we'll see to it that you don't work in town again." Ms. Kerr was nominated in 1956 for her role as Anna in "The King and I" while Nixon received a total of $420 for her work on the film.

Nixon's career began in 1948 when she sang the voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc. The same year, she did her first dubbing work when she provided Margaret O'Brien's singing voice in Big City and then 1949's The Secret Garden. She also dubbed Marilyn Monroe's high notes in "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). She appeared on Broadway in 1954 in The Girl in Pink Tights. In 1956, she worked closely with Deborah Kerr to supply the star's singing voice for the film version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I, and the next year she again worked with Kerr to dub her voice in An Affair to Remember. That year, she also sang for Sophia Loren in Boy on a Dolphin. In 1960, she had an on-screen chorus role in Can-Can. In 1961's West Side Story, the studio kept her work on the film (as the singing voice of Natalie Wood's Maria) a secret from the actress.

She asked the film's producers for, but did not receive, any direct royalties from her work on the film, but Leonard Bernstein contractually gave her 1/4 of one percent of his personal royalties from it. In 1962, she also sang Wood's high notes in Gypsy. For My Fair Lady in 1964, she again worked with the female lead of the film, Audrey Hepburn, to perform the songs of Hepburn's character Eliza. Nixon's first onscreen appearance was as Sister Sophia in the 1965 film The Sound of Music. In 1967, she was the singing voice of Princess Serena in a live action and animated version of Jack and the Beanstalk on NBC. Nixon also toured with Liberace and Victor Borge and in her own cabaret shows. On stage, in 1984, she originated the role of Edna Off-Broadway in Taking My Turn, composed by Gary William Friedman, receiving a nomination for a Drama Desk Award. She also originated the role of Sadie McKibben in Opal (1992), and she had a 1997 film role as Aunt Alice in I Think I Do.

Under her own name, beginning in the 1980s, Nixon recorded songs by Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Arnold Schönberg, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland and Anton Webern. She was nominated for two GRAMMY AWARDS for Best Classical Performance, Vocal Soloist, one for her Schönberg album and one for her Copland album. In the 1998 Disney film Mulan, Nixon was the singing voice of "Grandmother Fa". She then returned to the stage, touring the US as Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret in 1997-1998. In 2000, after nearly a half century away, she returned to Broadway as Aunt Kate in James Joyce's The Dead. In 2001, Nixon replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies.She played Eunice Miller in 70, Girls, 70 in a 2002 production in Los Angeles. In 2003, she was again on Broadway as a replacement in role of Guido's mother in the revival of Nine.

Her autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night, was published in 2006. She performed in the 2008 North American Tour of Cameron Mackintosh's U.K. revival of My Fair Lady in the role of Mrs. Higgins. Marni Nixon, voice of classic movie songs, has died at 86 Place an Obituary Marni Nixon, voice of classic movie songs, has died at 86 Actress Marni Nixon attends The Academy & MoMI hosts special archival screening of “The Sound of Music” at Museum of the Moving Image on May 2, 2015 in New York City. Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences By Mark Kennedy, AP Entertainment Writer Posted: # Comments NEW YORK >> Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in such classic movie musicals as “West Side Story,” ‘’The King and I” and “My Fair Lady,” has died. She was 86. Michael Kirsten, senior vice president of Nixon’s talent agency, Harden-Curtis Associates, said she died Sunday of cancer in New York.

“She passed away peacefully with her family at her side,” he said. Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her work, early on resented the dubbing work but later came to terms with it. “I realized now that this was something that would outlive me. Something that would last,” she wrote in her 2006 memoir, “I Could Have Sung All Night.” In the heyday of the Hollywood musical, studios often paid big money for film rights to hit Broadway shows, then cast them with popular non-singing actors and actresses. Such was the case with the 1956 hit “The King and I,” in which filmmakers dubbed Deborah Kerr’s voice with Nixon’s. “I was brought in and had to follow along with her, getting her diction and acting style,” Nixon recalled in 2004. “She in turn would study how I looked when I hit the high notes.” Nixon did the same for Natalie Wood in 1961’s “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in 1964’s “My Fair Lady,” which had starred Julie Andrews onstage.

Earlier, she added a few notes to Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” She went uncredited in the films and on their soundtrack albums and was warned by the filmmakers that if she ever let it be known that she was doing the singing, “they would run me out of town.” Word began to leak out, however, and Kerr herself blew Nixon’s cover when she praised her work on “The King and I.” By the late 1960s, The Hollywood Reporter was joking that “they found out who was doing (talking horse) Mr. Ed’s voice on the television show; it was Marni Nixon’s horse.” Nixon also appeared before the cameras in 1965, in a small role as a nun in “The Sound of Music,” and provided the singing voice of Grandmother Fa in the 1998 animated film “Mulan.’” As the era of big, traditional movie musicals dried up, though, so did Nixon’s film career.

But she kept busy with other work, including starring in her own children’s TV show, singing opera, soloing with symphony orchestras, appearing in a road tour of “Cabaret” and teaching at the California Institute of the Arts. In her later years, she was also popular at nostalgia festivals, where she told audiences, “I allowed all these actresses to dub their bodies to my voice.” She had landed her role in “West Side Story” after Wood’s voice proved inadequate for the challenging Leonard Bernstein score. She prepared for it by studying Wood singing the role of Maria before the cameras — and had to then face the exacting task of getting her singing to match Wood’s on-screen lip movements.

Advertisement Hepburn, who had memorably sung “Moon River” in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” had campaigned to do her own singing as Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady.” She was able to handle the film’s early cockney-accented songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” but Nixon — again carefully matching Hepburn’s vocal style — had to be called in for such soaring melodies as “I Could Have Danced All Night.” Both Wood and Hepburn, Nixon wrote, worked hard to learn the songs, and their singing was recorded in hopes that Nixon’s voice would be needed only to fill in on difficult passages. But that was not to be. “I heard later that Natalie Wood was very upset and felt betrayed by the powers that be,” Nixon wrote. As for Hepburn, “determined as she was, her vocals were not used.” Nixon recalled that after getting no royalties from the big-selling “The King and I” soundtrack album, she and her manager fought for better treatment for “West Side Story.” After some haggling, she wrote, Bernstein made the “incredibly generous gesture” of giving up a sliver of his royalty share.

It amounted to a major payday for her, given the album’s huge sales. She recalled she also had a small credit as “soprano soloist” — but no royalty — on the soundtrack recording of Kerr’s 1957 “An Affair to Remember.” The film isn’t a musical, but Kerr’s character is a nightclub singer. Nixon was born Margaret Nixon McEathron in 1930 in Altadena, California. The nickname Marni came from the first letters of her first and middle names. She took up the violin as a child and later studied voice. Her first dubbing job was for young Margaret O’Brien in the 1949 film “The Secret Garden.” Onstage, she made her Broadway debut in 1954 in “The Girl in Pink Tights,” and was in the 2001 revival of “Follies” and the 2003 revival of “Nine.” She toured with “My Fair Lady” in 2007. Nixon was married to film composer-conductor Ernest Gold, Oscar winner for “Exodus,” from 1950 to 1969. A second marriage, to Dr.

Lajos Fenster, in 1971 also ended in divorce. Nixon married flutist Albert Block in 1983. Her son, Andrew Gold, was a rock musician who arranged music for Linda Ronstadt and had a top 10 hit in 1977 with “Lonely Boy.” He died in 2011. She also had two daughters with her first husband, Martha and Melani. Biographical material in this story was written by The Associated Press’ late Hollywood correspondent Bob Thomas. This story has been updated to correct Nixon’s year of birth to 1930. Marni Nixon, Singing Voice Behind WEST SIDE STORY, THE KING AND I & More, Dies at 86 Marni Nixon, Singing Voice Behind WEST SIDE STORY, THE KING AND I & More, Dies at 86 Tweet Share The New York Times reports that Marni Nixon, perhaps best known for dubbing the singing voices of the leading actresses in films, including THE KING AND I, WEST SIDE STORY and MY FAIR LADY, passed away from breast cancer on July 24th. She was 86. Ms.

Nixon explained her Hollywood singing arrangements to ABC News in 2007 sharing, "You always had to sign a contract that nothing would be revealed. Twentieth Century Fox, when I did 'The King and I,' threatened me. They said, if anybody ever knows that you did any part of the dubbing for Deborah Kerr, we'll see to it that you don't work in town again." Ms. Kerr was nominated in 1956 for her role as Anna in "The King and I" while Nixon received a total of $420 for her work on the film. Nixon's career began in 1948 when she sang the voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc. The same year, she did her first dubbing work when she provided Margaret O'Brien's singing voice in Big City and then 1949's The Secret Garden. She also dubbed Marilyn Monroe's high notes in "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). She appeared on Broadway in 1954 in The Girl in Pink Tights.

In 1956, she worked closely with Deborah Kerr to supply the star's singing voice for the film version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I, and the next year she again worked with Kerr to dub her voice in An Affair to Remember. That year, she also sang for Sophia Loren in Boy on a Dolphin. In 1960, she had an on-screen chorus role in Can-Can. In 1961's West Side Story, the studio kept her work on the film (as the singing voice of Natalie Wood's Maria) a secret from the actress. She asked the film's producers for, but did not receive, any direct royalties from her work on the film, but Leonard Bernstein contractually gave her 1/4 of one percent of his personal royalties from it. In 1962, she also sang Wood's high notes in Gypsy. For My Fair Lady in 1964, she again worked with the female lead of the film, Audrey Hepburn, to perform the songs of Hepburn's character Eliza. Nixon's first onscreen appearance was as Sister Sophia in the 1965 film The Sound of Music.

In 1967, she was the singing voice of Princess Serena in a live action and animated version of Jack and the Beanstalk on NBC. Nixon also toured with Liberace and Victor Borge and in her own cabaret shows. On stage, in 1984, she originated the role of Edna Off-Broadway in Taking My Turn, composed by Gary William Friedman, receiving a nomination for a Drama Desk Award. She also originated the role of Sadie McKibben in Opal (1992), and she had a 1997 film role as Aunt Alice in I Think I Do. Under her own name, beginning in the 1980s, Nixon recorded songs by Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Arnold Schönberg, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland and Anton Webern. She was nominated for two GRAMMY AWARDS for Best Classical Performance, Vocal Soloist, one for her Schönberg album and one for her Copland album. In the 1998 Disney film Mulan, Nixon was the singing voice of "Grandmother Fa".

She then returned to the stage, touring the US as Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret in 1997-1998. In 2000, after nearly a half century away, she returned to Broadway as Aunt Kate in James Joyce's The Dead. In 2001, Nixon replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies.She played Eunice Miller in 70, Girls, 70 in a 2002 production in Los Angeles. In 2003, she was again on Broadway as a replacement in role of Guido's mother in the revival of Nine. Her autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night, was published in 2006. She performed in the 2008 North American Tour of Cameron Mackintosh's U.K. revival of My Fair Lady in the role of Mrs. Higgins.

Marni Nixon, voice of classic movie songs, has died at 86 | SaukValley.com Marni Nixon, voice of classic movie songs, has died at 86 Published: Monday, July 25, 2016 2:46 p.m.�CST Caption By MARK KENNEDY The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) – Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in such classic movie musicals as “West Side Story,” ‘’The King and I” and “My Fair Lady,” has died. She was 86. Michael Kirsten, senior vice president of Nixon’s talent agency, Harden-Curtis Associates, said she died Sunday of cancer in New York. “She passed away peacefully with her family at her side,” he said. Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her work, early on resented the dubbing work but later came to terms with it. “I realized now that this was something that would outlive me.

Something that would last,” she wrote in her 2006 memoir, “I Could Have Sung All Night.” In the heyday of the Hollywood musical, studios often paid big money for film rights to hit Broadway shows, then cast them with popular non-singing actors and actresses. Such was the case with the 1956 hit “The King and I,” in which filmmakers dubbed Deborah Kerr’s voice with Nixon’s. “I was brought in and had to follow along with her, getting her diction and acting style,” Nixon recalled in 2004. “She in turn would study how I looked when I hit the high notes.” Nixon did the same for Natalie Wood in 1961’s “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in 1964’s “My Fair Lady,” which had starred Julie Andrews onstage.

Earlier, she added a few notes to Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” She went uncredited in the films and on their soundtrack albums and was warned by the filmmakers that if she ever let it be known that she was doing the singing, “they would run me out of town.” Word began to leak out, however, and Kerr herself blew Nixon’s cover when she praised her work on “The King and I.” By the late 1960s, The Hollywood Reporter was joking that “they found out who was doing (talking horse) Mr. Ed’s voice on the television show; it was Marni Nixon’s horse.” Nixon also appeared before the cameras in 1965, in a small role as a nun in “The Sound of Music,” and provided the singing voice of Grandmother Fa in the 1998 animated film “Mulan.’” As the era of big, traditional movie musicals dried up, though, so did Nixon’s film career.

But she kept busy with other work, including starring in her own children’s TV show, singing opera, soloing with symphony orchestras, appearing in a road tour of “Cabaret” and teaching at the California Institute of the Arts. In her later years, she was also popular at nostalgia festivals, where she told audiences, “I allowed all these actresses to dub their bodies to my voice.” She had landed her role in “West Side Story” after Wood’s voice proved inadequate for the challenging Leonard Bernstein score. She prepared for it by studying Wood singing the role of Maria before the cameras — and had to then face the exacting task of getting her singing to match Wood’s on-screen lip movements.

Hepburn, who had memorably sung “Moon River” in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” had campaigned to do her own singing as Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady.” She was able to handle the film’s early cockney-accented songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” but Nixon — again carefully matching Hepburn’s vocal style — had to be called in for such soaring melodies as “I Could Have Danced All Night.” Both Wood and Hepburn, Nixon wrote, worked hard to learn the songs, and their singing was recorded in hopes that Nixon’s voice would be needed only to fill in on difficult passages. But that was not to be. “I heard later that Natalie Wood was very upset and felt betrayed by the powers that be,” Nixon wrote. As for Hepburn, “determined as she was, her vocals were not used.” Nixon recalled that after getting no royalties from the big-selling “The King and I” soundtrack album, she and her manager fought for better treatment for “West Side Story.” After some haggling, she wrote, Bernstein made the “incredibly generous gesture” of giving up a sliver of his royalty share.

It amounted to a major payday for her, given the album’s huge sales. She recalled she also had a small credit as “soprano soloist” — but no royalty — on the soundtrack recording of Kerr’s 1957 “An Affair to Remember.” The film isn’t a musical, but Kerr’s character is a nightclub singer. Nixon was born Margaret Nixon McEathron in 1929 in Altadena, California. The nickname Marni came from the first letters of her first and middle names. She took up the violin as a child and later studied voice. Her first dubbing job was for young Margaret O’Brien in the 1949 film “The Secret Garden.” Onstage, she made her Broadway debut in 1954 in “The Girl in Pink Tights,” and was in the 2001 revival of “Follies” and the 2003 revival of “Nine.” She toured with “My Fair Lady” in 2007. Nixon was married to film composer-conductor Ernest Gold, Oscar winner for “Exodus,” from 1950 to 1969. A second marriage, to Dr.

Lajos Fenster, in 1971 also ended in divorce. Nixon married flutist Albert Block in 1983. Her son, Andrew Gold, was a rock musician who arranged music for Linda Ronstadt and had a top 10 hit in 1977 with “Lonely Boy.” He died in 2011. She also had two daughters with her first husband, Martha and Melani. ___ Marni Nixon, 86, voice of classic movie songs - The Boston Globe Already a subscriber? Members Sign In Marni Nixon, 86, voice of classic movie songs The Boston Globe Tweet Share Rob Kim/Getty Images/File 2015 Ms. Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her work, early on resented the dubbing work but later came to terms with it. By Mark Kennedy Associated Press July 25, 2016 NEW YORK — Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in such classic movie musicals as “West Side Story,” “The King and I,” and “My Fair Lady,” has died. She was 86.

Michael Kirsten, senior vice president of Ms. Nixon’s talent agency, Harden-Curtis Associates, said she died Sunday of cancer in New York. ‘‘She passed away peacefully with her family at her side,’’ he said. Advertisement Ms. Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her work, early on resented the dubbing work but later came to terms with it. “I realized now that this was something that would outlive me. Something that would last,” she wrote in her 2006 memoir, “I Could Have Sung All Night.” In the heyday of the Hollywood musical, studios often paid big money for film rights to hit Broadway shows, then cast them with nonsinging actors and actresses. Get Today's Headlines in your inbox: The day's top stories delivered every morning. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here Such was the case with the 1956 hit “The King and I,” in which filmmakers dubbed Deborah Kerr’s voice with Ms. Nixon’s.

When singer/actress Marni Nixon ran into some difficulties while providing Natalie Wood’s vocals for the film “West Side Story,” musical director Saul Chaplin told her, “We didn’t hire you for your voice, we hired you for your iron nerves.”Nixon laughs at the memory, but her experience dubbing the vocals for Wood, who played Maria, was more than a little challenging. She describes many of her stories in her 2006 autobiography “I Could Have Sung All Night,” but audiences can hear her work when the Boston Symphony Orchestra performs Leonard Bernstein’s lush score while screening the movie Friday through Sunday at Symphony Hall. At the Sunday performance, Nixon will be interviewed on stage by Joyce Kulhawik, former WBZ-TV entertainment reporter, before the concert. “I was brought in and had to follow along with her, getting her diction and acting style,” Nixon recalled in 2004. “She in turn would study how I looked when I hit the high notes.” Nixon did the same for Natalie Wood in 1961’s “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in 1964’s “My Fair Lady,” which had starred Julie Andrews onstage.

Earlier, she added a few notes to Marilyn Monroe’s ‘‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” Advertisement She went uncredited in the films and on their soundtrack albums and was warned by the filmmakers that if she ever let it be known that she was doing the singing, “they would run me out of town.” Word began to leak out, however, and Kerr herself blew Ms. Nixon’s cover when she praised her work on “The King and I.” By the late 1960s, The Hollywood Reporter was joking that “they found out who was doing [talking horse] Mr. Ed’s voice on the television show; it was Marni Nixon’s horse.” Ms. Nixon also appeared before the cameras in 1965, in a small role as a nun in “The Sound of Music,” and provided the singing voice of Grandmother Fa in the 1998 animated film “Mulan.” As the era of big, traditional movie musicals dried up, though, so did Ms. Nixon’s film career.

But she kept busy with other work, including starring in her own children’s TV show, singing opera, soloing with symphony orchestras, appearing in a road tour of “Cabaret,” and teaching at the California Institute of the Arts. In her later years, she was also popular at nostalgia festivals, where she told audiences, “I allowed all these actresses to dub their bodies to my voice.” She had landed her role in “West Side Story” after Wood’s voice proved inadequate for the challenging Leonard Bernstein score. She prepared for it by studying Wood singing the role of Maria before the cameras — and had to then face the exacting task of getting her singing to match Wood’s on-screen lip movements. Hepburn, who had memorably sung “Moon River” in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” had campaigned to do her own singing as Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady.” She was able to handle the film’s early cockney-accented songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” but Ms. Nixon — again carefully matching Hepburn’s vocal style — had to be called in for such soaring melodies as “I Could Have Danced All Night.” Both Wood and Hepburn, Ms.

Nixon wrote, worked hard to learn the songs, and their singing was recorded in hopes that Ms. Nixon’s voice would be needed only to fill in on difficult passages. But that was not to be. “I heard later that Natalie Wood was very upset and felt betrayed by the powers that be,” Ms. Nixon wrote. As for Hepburn, “determined as she was, her vocals were not used.” Ms. Nixon recalled that after getting no royalties from the big-selling “The King and I” soundtrack album, she and her manager fought for better treatment for “West Side Story.” After some haggling, she wrote, Bernstein made the “incredibly generous gesture” of giving up a sliver of his royalty share. It amounted to a major payday for her, given the album’s huge sales. She recalled she also had a small credit as “soprano soloist” — but no royalty — on the soundtrack recording of Kerr’s 1957 “An Affair to Remember.” The film isn’t a musical, but Kerr’s character is a nightclub singer. Ms. Nixon was born Margaret Nixon McEathron in 1930 in Altadena, Calif.

The nickname Marni came from the first letters of her first and middle names. She took up the violin as a child and later studied voice. Her first dubbing job was for young Margaret O’Brien in the 1949 film “The Secret Garden.” Onstage, she made her Broadway debut in 1954 in “The Girl in Pink Tights,” and was in the 2001 revival of “Follies” and the 2003 revival of “Nine.” She toured with “My Fair Lady” in 2007. Ms. Nixon was married to film composer-conductor Ernest Gold, Oscar winner for “Exodus,” from 1950 to 1969. A second marriage, to Dr. Lajos Fenster, in 1971 also ended in divorce. Ms. Nixon married flutist Albert Block in 1983. Her son, Andrew Gold, was a rock musician who arranged music for Linda Ronstadt and had a top 10 hit in 1977 with ‘‘Lonely Boy.’’ He died in 2011.

She also had two daughters with her first husband, Martha and Melani. Top 10 Trending Articles Marni Nixon, sang in place of stars in Hollywood musicals, dies at 86 – The Mercury News July 25, 2016 at 10:24 am | UPDATED: August 11, 2016 at 10:41 pm NEW YORK — Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in such classic movie musicals as “West Side Story,” “The King and I” and “My Fair Lady,” has died. She was 86. Michael Kirsten, senior vice president of Nixon’s talent agency, Harden-Curtis Associates, said she died Sunday of cancer in New York. “She passed away peacefully with her family at her side,” he said. Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her work, early on resented the dubbing work but later came to terms with it. “I realized now that this was something that would outlive me.

Something that would last,” she wrote in her 2006 memoir, “I Could Have Sung All Night.” In the heyday of the Hollywood musical, studios often paid big money for film rights to hit Broadway shows, then cast them with popular non-singing actors and actresses. Such was the case with the 1956 hit “The King and I,” in which filmmakers dubbed Deborah Kerr’s voice with Nixon’s. “I was brought in and had to follow along with her, getting her diction and acting style,” Nixon recalled in 2004. “She in turn would study how I looked when I hit the high notes.” Nixon did the same for Natalie Wood in 1961’s “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in 1964’s “My Fair Lady,” which had starred Julie Andrews onstage.

Earlier, she added a few notes to Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” She went uncredited in the films and on their soundtrack albums and was warned by the filmmakers that if she ever let it be known that she was doing the singing, “they would run me out of town.” Word began to leak out, however, and Kerr herself blew Nixon’s cover when she praised her work on “The King and I.” By the late 1960s, The Hollywood Reporter was joking that “they found out who was doing (talking horse) Mr. Ed’s voice on the television show; it was Marni Nixon’s horse.” Nixon also appeared before the cameras in 1965, in a small role as a nun in “The Sound of Music,” and provided the singing voice of Grandmother Fa in the 1998 animated film “Mulan.”‘ As the era of big, traditional movie musicals dried up, though, so did Nixon’s film career.

But she kept busy with other work, including starring in her own children’s TV show, singing opera, soloing with symphony orchestras, appearing in a road tour of “Cabaret” and teaching at the California Institute of the Arts. In her later years, she was also popular at nostalgia festivals, where she told audiences, “I allowed all these actresses to dub their bodies to my voice.” She had landed her role in “West Side Story” after Wood’s voice proved inadequate for the challenging Leonard Bernstein score. She prepared for it by studying Wood singing the role of Maria before the cameras — and had to then face the exacting task of getting her singing to match Wood’s on-screen lip movements.

Hepburn, who had memorably sung “Moon River” in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” had campaigned to do her own singing as Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady.” She was able to handle the film’s early cockney-accented songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” but Nixon — again carefully matching Hepburn’s vocal style — had to be called in for such soaring melodies as “I Could Have Danced All Night.” Both Wood and Hepburn, Nixon wrote, worked hard to learn the songs, and their singing was recorded in hopes that Nixon’s voice would be needed only to fill in on difficult passages. But that was not to be. “I heard later that Natalie Wood was very upset and felt betrayed by the powers that be,” Nixon wrote. As for Hepburn, “determined as she was, her vocals were not used.” Nixon recalled that after getting no royalties from the big-selling “The King and I” soundtrack album, she and her manager fought for better treatment for “West Side Story.” After some haggling, she wrote, Bernstein made the “incredibly generous gesture” of giving up a sliver of his royalty share.

It amounted to a major payday for her, given the album’s huge sales. She recalled she also had a small credit as “soprano soloist” — but no royalty — on the soundtrack recording of Kerr’s 1957 “An Affair to Remember.” The film isn’t a musical, but Kerr’s character is a nightclub singer. Nixon was born Margaret Nixon McEathron in 1930 in Altadena, California. The nickname Marni came from the first letters of her first and middle names. She took up the violin as a child and later studied voice. Her first dubbing job was for young Margaret O’Brien in the 1949 film “The Secret Garden.” Onstage, she made her Broadway debut in 1954 in “The Girl in Pink Tights,” and was in the 2001 revival of “Follies” and the 2003 revival of “Nine.” She toured with “My Fair Lady” in 2007. Nixon was married to film composer-conductor Ernest Gold, Oscar winner for “Exodus,” from 1950 to 1969. A second marriage, to Dr.

Lajos Fenster, in 1971 also ended in divorce. Nixon married flutist Albert Block in 1983. Her son, Andrew Gold, was a rock musician who arranged music for Linda Ronstadt and had a top 10 hit in 1977 with “Lonely Boy.” He died in 2011. She also had two daughters with her first husband, Martha and Melani. —— Biographical material in this story was written by The Associated Press’ late Hollywood correspondent Bob Thomas. —— This story has been updated to correct Nixon’s year of birth to 1930.

AP-WF-07-25-16 1844GMT Marni Nixon dies; Hollywood voice double was 86 | Newsday Marni Nixon dies; Hollywood voice double was 86 July 25, 2016 10:44 PM By Mark Kennedy The Associated Press Reprints + - Actress Marni Nixon and author Tom Santopietro attend a booksigning at The Academy & MoMI hosts special archival screening of "The Sound of Music" at Museum of the Moving Image on May 2, 2015 in New York City. Photo Credit: Getty Images North America / Rob Kim advertisement | advertise on newsday Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in such classic movie musicals as “West Side Story,” “The King and I” and “My Fair Lady,” has died. She was 86. Michael Kirsten, senior vice president of Nixon’s talent agency, Harden-Curtis Associates, said she died Sunday of cancer in Manhattan. “She passed away peacefully with her family at her side,” he said.

Most Popular City Council passes bills on art, dollar vans Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her work, early on resented the dubbing work but later came to terms with it. “I realized now that this was something that would outlive me. Something that would last,” she wrote in her 2006 memoir, “I Could Have Sung All Night.” PhotosShocking celeb deaths See alsoSee more LI, U.S. obits In the heyday of the Hollywood musical, studios often paid big money for film rights to hit Broadway shows, then cast them with popular non-singing actors and actresses. Such was the case with the 1956 hit “The King and I,” in which filmmakers dubbed Deborah Kerr’s voice with Nixon’s. “I was brought in and had to follow along with her, getting her diction and acting style,” Nixon recalled in 2004. “She in turn would study how I looked when I hit the high notes.” advertisement | advertise on newsday Nixon did the same for Natalie Wood in 1961’s “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in 1964’s “My Fair Lady,” which had starred Julie Andrews onstage.

Earlier, she added a few notes to Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” She went uncredited in the films and on their soundtrack albums and was warned by the filmmakers that if she ever let it be known that she was doing the singing, “they would run me out of town.” CelebritiesRecent notable deaths Word began to leak out, however, and Kerr herself blew Nixon’s cover when she praised her work on “The King and I.” By the late 1960s, The Hollywood Reporter was joking that “they found out who was doing (talking horse) Mr. Ed’s voice on the television show; it was Marni Nixon’s horse.” Get the Newsday Now newsletter! The best of Newsday every day in your inbox. sign up Nixon also appeared before the cameras in 1965, in a small role as a nun in “The Sound of Music,” and provided the singing voice of Grandmother Fa in the 1998 animated film “Mulan.”‘ As the era of big, traditional movie musicals dried up, though, so did Nixon’s film career.

But she kept busy with other work, including starring in her own children’s TV show, singing opera, soloing with symphony orchestras, appearing in a road tour of “Cabaret” and teaching at the California Institute of the Arts. In her later years, she was also popular at nostalgia festivals, where she told audiences, “I allowed all these actresses to dub their bodies to my voice.” She had landed her role in “West Side Story” after Wood’s voice proved inadequate for the challenging Leonard Bernstein score. She prepared for it by studying Wood singing the role of Maria before the cameras — and had to then face the exacting task of getting her singing to match Wood’s on-screen lip movements.

Hepburn, who had memorably sung “Moon River” in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” had campaigned to do her own singing as Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady.” advertisement | advertise on newsday She was able to handle the film’s early cockney-accented songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” but Nixon — again carefully matching Hepburn’s vocal style — had to be called in for such soaring melodies as “I Could Have Danced All Night.” Both Wood and Hepburn, Nixon wrote, worked hard to learn the songs, and their singing was recorded in hopes that Nixon’s voice would be needed only to fill in on difficult passages. But that was not to be. “I heard later that Natalie Wood was very upset and felt betrayed by the powers that be,” Nixon wrote. As for Hepburn, “determined as she was, her vocals were not used.” Nixon recalled that after getting no royalties from the big-selling “The King and I” soundtrack album, she and her manager fought for better treatment for “West Side Story.” After some haggling, she wrote, Bernstein made the “incredibly generous gesture” of giving up a sliver of his royalty share.

It amounted to a major payday for her, given the album’s huge sales. advertisement | advertise on newsday She recalled she also had a small credit as “soprano soloist” — but no royalty — on the soundtrack recording of Kerr’s 1957 “An Affair to Remember.” The film isn’t a musical, but Kerr’s character is a nightclub singer. Nixon was born Margaret Nixon McEathron in 1930 in Altadena, California. The nickname Marni came from the first letters of her first and middle names. She took up the violin as a child and later studied voice. Her first dubbing job was for young Margaret O’Brien in the 1949 film “The Secret Garden.” Onstage, she made her Broadway debut in 1954 in “The Girl in Pink Tights,” and was in the 2001 revival of “Follies” and the 2003 revival of “Nine.” She toured with “My Fair Lady” in 2007. Nixon was married to film composer-conductor Ernest Gold, Oscar winner for “Exodus,” from 1950 to 1969.

A second marriage, to Dr. Lajos Fenster, in 1971 also ended in divorce. Nixon married flutist Albert Block in 1983. Her son, Andrew Gold, was a rock musician who arranged music for Linda Ronstadt and had a top 10 hit in 1977 with “Lonely Boy.” He died in 2011. She also had two daughters with her first husband, Martha and Melani. Get the Newsday Now newsletter! The best of Newsday every day in your inbox. Marni Nixon, voice of classic Hollywood songs, dies at 86 - The China Post Marni Nixon, voice of classic Hollywood songs, dies at 86 By Mark Kennedy, AP July 27, 2016, 12:14 am TWN SHARE Tweet NEW YORK--Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in such classic movie musicals as "West Side Story," "The King and I" and "My Fair Lady," has died. She was 86.

Michael Kirsten, senior vice president of Nixon's talent agency, Harden-Curtis Associates, said she died Sunday in New York. Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her work, early on resented the dubbing work but later came to terms with it. "I realized now that this was something that would outlive me. Something that would last," she wrote in her 2006 memoir, "I Could Have Sung All Night." In the heyday of the Hollywood musical, studios often paid big money for film rights to hit Broadway shows, then cast them with popular non-singing actors and actresses. Such was the case with the 1956 hit "The King and I," in which filmmakers dubbed Deborah Kerr's voice with Nixon's. "I was brought in and had to follow along with her, getting her diction and acting style," Nixon recalled in 2004. "She in turn would study how I looked when I hit the high notes." Nixon did the same for Natalie Wood in 1961's "West Side Story" and Audrey Hepburn in 1964's "My Fair Lady," which had starred Julie Andrews onstage.

Earlier, she added a few notes to Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." She went uncredited in the films and on their soundtrack albums and was warned by the filmmakers that if she ever let it be known that she was doing the singing, "they would run me out of town." Word began to leak out, however, and Kerr herself blew Nixon's cover when she praised her work on "The King and I." By the late 1960s, The Hollywood Reporter was joking that "they found out who was doing (talking horse) Mr. Ed's voice on the television show; it was Marni Nixon's horse." Nixon also appeared before the cameras in 1965, in a small role as a nun in "The Sound of Music," and provided the singing voice of Grandmother Fa in the 1998 animated film "Mulan." As the era of big, traditional movie musicals dried up, though, so did Nixon's film career.

But she kept busy with other work, including starring in her own children's TV show, singing opera, soloing with symphony orchestras, appearing in a road tour of "Cabaret" and teaching at the California Institute of the Arts. SHARE

Question: Which-singer's voice was of the leading actress in the films 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes', 'The King and I', 'West Side Story' and 'My Fair Lady'?
Answer: Marni Nixon